Maria's Ornament
by AmberRose611
Summary: Christmas is a time for joy and happiness. If this is true then why is a certain black hedgehog acting more depressed than ever? Read to find out! R


**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the sonic characters. I wsh I did though D:**

Maria's Ornament

A pink hedgehog gazed out the window at the small, white flakes falling from the sky. She gave a dreamy sigh, "Isn't Christmas the best time of the year?" She asked to no one in particular.

"It sure is Amy," Cream replied while putting silver and gold ornaments on the Christmas tree. "Everyone gets to be together, spend time with each other and give each other gifts." Tails, Knuckles and Sonic nodded in agreement, though they hadn't been paying full attention to what the two girls were talking about. Shadow was there also but he had been standing in the corner with his head low, not saying a word. Cream noticed this and walked over to him, being the kind girl that she was she would try to find out what was bothering him.

"What's the matter Mr. Shadow? Christmas is the most joyful time of the year. You shouldn't look so sad."

"I'm fine," he simply replied as he walked out the door and into the bitter cold. Cream turned to the rest of the group with a worried look, they simply shrugged. Cream walked back to the tree to finish decorating it.

"I wouldn't worry to much about him Cream, Shadow always looks sad and depressed," Sonic said reassuringly. Cream half smiled and put the last of the decorations on the tree, though she couldn't shake the feeling that something was bothering Shadow, something important.

Meanwhile Shadow was walking down the streets of Westopolis, the city he had once saved from the Black Arms invasion. He stopped to look at the shops on the street; there were holiday decorations in every store, they looked beautiful but it wasn't exactly helping the way he felt. He sighed and kept walking until he reached a park. The trees in the park were blanketed with snow and glowing as the moon's luminous glow landed upon them. Shadow went to a wooden bench that had been sheltered from the falling snow by a tree branch overhead and sat on it. He sighed, Christmas may have been a happy holiday for some but for this ebony hedgehog it was the absolute worst, the holiday simply caused him too much pain... Shadow sighed as he looked around the park; even in this place there were decorations for that cursed holiday. The walkway was lighted with glowing candy canes and reefs hanging from the street lights and Christmas tree lighted and dressed in the center of the park, its star shining almost as bright as the moon up in the sky. Shadow just looked at the white snow and began to go through his memories of this holiday.

_Flashback…_

"_Why awe we decowating this twee Mawia?" a curious black hedgehog asked._

"_It's so Santa Claus has a place to put our presents under," the young girl dressed in blue replied. The black hedgehog shrugged and put a shiny red ball on the artificial tree they had been decorating. _

"_Mawia can you tell me about Santa Claus again?" the little hedgie asked. _

"_Of course Shadow," Maria said putting her last ornament on the tree. "Santa Claus is a jolly man who lives in the North Pole. He spends all year making toys for all the good little boys and girls all around the world with the help from all the elves."_

"_How does he know what they want? And how does he know if they wewe good?" Shadow asked baffled by what Maria was telling him. _

"_Santa has a list of who's been naughty and who's been nice and he's watching so he knows what to get you." _

"_And how does he delivew all the pwesents?" _

"_Santa puts all the toys in a humongous sack and he puts the sack into his giant sleigh. His sleigh is carried by Santa's nine reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer._

"_Oh and why does Rudolph have a wed nose?" Shadow questioned. Maria giggled the little black hedgehog was so full of questions. She answered any questioned he had asked. _

"_And the last thing we do for Santa is leave cookie's and milk for him to snack on when he comes here," Maria smiled happy with her explanations, but Shadow suddenly got a frightened look on his face._

"_Mawia what if Santa can't come hewe because whewe in space?" he asked alarmed and practically in tears. Maria hugged him a smiled warmly._

"_Santa is magical, he always seems to put presents under our tree in the ARK even though it is in space," a wave of relief washed over Shadow and he smiled. The two of them then went off to bake the cookies for Santa Claus._

_End Flashback_

Shadow partially smiled at his innocence during that time. He then got up and walked over to the Christmas tree in the center of the park. He observed its beauty and radiance. He walked around the tree taking in its glory until he noticed something in the snow. It was an ornament, one of an angel. Though this angel looked awfully familiar to Shadow, she had golden hair and was wearing a long dress blue at the top blue-white at the bottom. She had beautiful glass wings and was holding what looked like a small star shining just as bright as one would in the night sky. Shadow picked it up gingerly and held it amazed at the resemblance. He could feel the pain and sadness well up inside him, so much that he couldn't keep the tears from forming in his eyes. He held onto the ornament as he began to kneel into the snow as the tears rolled down his cheeks with no resistance. Yes Shadow the hedgehog, a hedgehog tough as nails and had a glare cold as winter itself was indeed breaking down. He missed her so much and he had kept it bottled up so long it just had gushed out all at once. Meanwhile at Amy's house the gang had all become concerned about Shadow's strange behavior.

"I don't see the big deal Shadow acts emo all the time what's so different about today?" Knuckles asked quite bored.

"Something's not right I've never seen Mr. Shadow act THIS sad," Cream argued.

"Come to think of it last Christmas I think I recall Shadow acting a bit moody as well," Tails said agreeing with Cream.

"Maybe something really bad happened to Mr. Shadow around Christmas time," suggested Cream.

"What hasn't happened to Shadow?" Knuckles said smugly but that only earned him a slap to the head from Amy's right hand.

"Knuckles have some sympathy for him! He's been through a lot in his life and he needs our help now. Can't you be something other than rude for once in your life?" Amy snapped at him. At first Knuckles was surprised, but then the guilt set in as he had realized what he said had been wrong.

"You think we should go look for Shadow he's been gone a while," Tails asked. They all nodded and began looking for Shadow.

Shadow wiped the tears from his eyes and lifted his head from his knees. "Maria….why did you have to go? You were my only friend, the only thing that made my life worth while and meaningful but _**they**_ took you away from me." Shadow whispered to himself. He looked at the ornament again and clenched it in his fist as a few more droplets slipped away from his crimson eyes.

"Shadow, Shadow?" the group called as they walked through the park.

"Chao chao!" Cheese shouted as he pointed to something black in the white snow. Cream looked at what he was pointing to and ran over to it.

"Mr. Shadow are you okay?" Cream asked in a very concerned voice. Shadow didn't say anything but instead he got up and got ready to run away that is until Cream grabbed his hand.

"We've all been worried about you Mr. Shadow please tell us what's bother you," Shadow looked into her eyes and he saw the same caring and selfless he saw in Maria's eyes. He couldn't bear to go against what she had said and so he stopped, by this time the rest of the group had showed up.

"So Shadow what's been bothering ya all this time?" Sonic asked.

"It's just…..It's- let me just show you…," Shadow said he slowly began walking out of the park and to the outskirts of Westopolis to its only graveyard. Shadow walked up and down the rows of tombstones until he found the one he was looking for. The group looked at in sadness.

"Man, Shadow I just have to say I'm sorry for your loss. I didn't know this is when it happened," Sonic said with a bit of sadness in his voice. Shadow simply nodded and looked at the tombstone which read:

_Maria Robotnik – May 7, 1939 – December 24, 1951_

Shadow placed the ornament he had found on the grave a single tear in his eye in which had soon fallen. People feel pain all around the world physical and emotional. But Shadow the Hedgehog has been through worse than anyone else could because nothing can match the pain he feels on the day of Christmas Eve.

* * *

This is my first story and I think it came out great. well except the ending I could've done better with it oh well. The day Maria was born and died are not real I made them up based off the year SA2 was release. This is my edition to the Christmas stories on here and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Sayonara readers and Happy holidays to you all.


End file.
